Took me 8 months to find out why my pack was killing my shoulders on the AT

Michael Morgan · 2026-10-16T05:50:02.874987+00:00

I hiked the first 200 miles of the Appalachian Trail with a 32 pound pack and kept blaming my shoulders for the pain. A guy at a shelter in Hot Springs told me my hip belt was riding too high and I had been carrying the weight on my straps the entire time, which took me about 8 months of slow gear swaps and dumb online advice to finally figure out. Does anyone else wish someone had just pointed at their belt on day one instead of learning it the hard way?

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Took me 8 months to find out why my pack was killing my shoulders on the AT | Backpacking Routes - Thought Shares